The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang, Accessory to War

Immanuel Kant showed us that facts only become facts within us, as part of a representation of the world constructed by our minds. Later we would discover that in addition to the filters of our senses, facts were also shaped by the knowledge and systems of values of those who perceived them. From this facts became increasingly seen as a human construction, subjective and distant from the original impression of being absolute and static entities. The old phrase “Against facts there are no arguments” lost more and more meaning. And the way you or I perceive the world is, and always will be, unique. As unique as a face.

— Marcos A. Raposo, Postmodern Flames in Brazil

Although the average programming manager would say that intelligence is more important than personality in programming success, very few could cite cases of people who turned out not to be intelligent enough to program, but everyone knows of cases of people who were not temperamentally suited to the programmer’s job.

— Gerald Weinberg, The Psychology of Computer Programming

…creativity and control are, to some extent, enemies.

— Robert L. Glass and Tom DeMarco, Software Creativity 2.0

We thus see that the freshest and most delicious foods are eaten by two groups of people: the relatively poor, who have no choice, and the relatively rich, who spend lots of money trying to re-create the food supply networks that the relatively poor have been working with for centuries.

— Tyler Cowen, An Economist Gets Lunch